Thirds to mary fenimore elliot



Patented Jan. 3, I899.

D. R. WARD MECHANICAL STOKER.

(Application filed Apr. 4. 1898.

2 Sheet9-$heet 2.

(No Model.)

WITNESSES:

ATTORNEYS.

1w: ucnms FEYERS c0. mmouma. wAsmmou. a. Q

DAVID REYNOLDS \VARD, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR OF TIVO- THIRDS TO MARY FENIMORE ELLIOT, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

MECHANICAL STOKER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 617,302, dated January 3, 1899.

Application filed April 4, 1898- $erial No. 6'76 290. (N 0 model.)

T0 at whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID REYNOLDS WARD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mechanical Stokers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to certain improvements in that class of fuel-feeding devices represented by the one shown and described in my prior application filed August 10, 1897, Serial No. 647,695, the objects of the present improvements being to reduce the large lumps of coal to a size better adapted to be fed to and distributed by the injector over the bed of fire, to increase the capacity of the hopper in which the coal is first fed and thereby avoid the necessity for a frequent replenishing of said hopper with coal, and to secure other advantages and results, some of which may be referred to hereinafter in connection with the description of the working parts.

The invention consists in the improved fuel feeding or stoking apparatus for furnaces and in the arrangements and combinations of parts of the same, all substantially as will be hereinafter set forth, and finally embraced in the clauses of the claim.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, in which like letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in each of the several views, Figure l is a front elevation of a portion of a furnace to which my stoking apparatus has been applied. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a plan showing the base-plate from which the upper portion of the hopper has been removed and certain parts of the feed apparatus in operative relation thereto. Fig. etis a sectional view of the same, showing a part of the upper portion of the hopper, the View being taken at line :0; and Fig. 5 is a transverse section of the same with the feeding-chains omitted, the section being taken on line 11 a In said drawings, a indicates the furnace or boiler front, of any ordinary construction, of which ct a are the ash-pit doors, a the firechamber doors, and a the doors at the front of the boiler-fines, permitting access thereto. Upon said flue-doors a is removably secured a hopper or fuel-receptacle bin any ordinary manner.

In the construction heretofore disclosed by me in the specification and drawings of the application above referred to the said hopper was made, as viewed in front elevation, of a funnel shape, the said hopper being enlarged at the top, the ends converging toward the bottom. In the present case the end walls of the hopper are made vertical, and the ends of said hopper may extend oppositely to increase the capacity of said hopper to any extent convenient, the size of the hopper not being controlled by the distance of the injector-hoppers 0 0 from one another.

The bottom of the hopper b consists of a casting b, in which are formed a pair of integral boxes a, raised from the horizontal plate portion 1) of said casting. The said raised boxes 0 c are each provided interiorly with a contracting chamber 0, the converging top and side walls of which extend from the open mouth of said chamber oppositely to the opening 0'' through the plate 1) formed above the funnels f, depending from the under side of said plate. Feeding-chains e (2 enfor through openings 6 at the opposite ends of the hopper b and slide over the horizontal upper surfaces of the base-plate b" and enter the large open ends of said contracting chambers a, drawing the fuel to the openings 0, from whence it gravitates into the funnels.

The feeding-chains are arranged on sprocket vheels gin the passages c" and outside of the hopper b on sprocket-wheels g, said wheels being so disposed and arranged as to cause the chains to travel along the floor or plate I)" at the top thereof and to draw the 5 fuel from the ends of the hopper inward toward the center. The supplemental hopthrough the funnels ff to the hoppers of the injectors.

The sprocket-wheels g are journaled or pivoted upon brackets 71., Fig. 4, fixed upon the opposite ends of the hopper-plate b, said wheels lying within the end extensions f of the supplementalhopper. The feeding-chains 6, arranged on said sprocket-wheels g g, are provided with suitable buckets 2', which are made of heavy and strong metal and perform not only the function of drawing the fuel into the passage or opening 0, but the further function of reducing the coal by cutting, crushing, or similar comminuting process in connection with the converging walls. The larger lumps or masses of coal, more partic ularly soft coal, are broken, out, or crushed by the projecting edges of the buckets into smaller lumps or pieces of a size suited to be fed to the injectors and thence to the fire. The reduced coal being thus of a more uniform size when spread upon the bed of fire conduces to a more regular and perfect combustion. The said buckets at their projecting edges are not necessarily made sharp, so as to cut into the fuel, but the edges may act to either cut or crush the coal as it is fed through the contracting chambers c.

Theopenings of the boxes 0 0 face in opposite directions and lie substantially at the center of the hopper, and the feeding-chains a travel inward toward said center, and thus it is evident that the opposite ends of the hopper may be made as far apart as convenience may require without affecting the supply of fuel therefrom to the funnels f or allowing the fuel to accumulate in a dead mass at the ends of said hopper.

The feeding-chains e and their sprocketwheels 9 g are driven by suitable powertransmitting devicessuch, preferably, as I have described in my former specification-4c 7.: being outside sprocket-wheels arranged on the shafts Z Z with the sprocket-wheels g g. A power-chain m extends to a suitable sprocket-pulley n on a shaft or, driven by any suitable means. The fuel-injecting devices are also substantially the same as I have previously described, the injectors being preferably attached to the furnace-doors and being provided with the hoppers 0 0, before referred to. Compressed air or steam is supplied to the injectors through the sectional pipes 19 p, which latter are joined by a flexible connection 19, permitting the opening of the f urnace-doors without dismantling the device or machine. The compressed fluid is supplied from any source through the pipe 19', all as heretofore fully described.

Inasmuch as the hopper?) may be made proportionally larger by the construction disclosed, it is evident that said hopper will not require to be replenished with fuel with the same frequency, and thus less attention on the part of the stoker will be required.

The general operation of the parts are as heretofore, and a further description of the operation is deemed to be unnecessary.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim as new is 1. In a furnace-stoking apparatus, the combination with feeding-chains, and means for operating the same, of a hopper having center outpassages for the fuel, the said feeding-chains moving oppositely from the opposite ends of the hopper to said central openings, substantially as set forth.

2. In a furnace-stoking apparatus, the combination with the feeding-chains and means for operating the same, of a hopper having a center outpassage or opening and a box formed above the said outpassage or opening, walls converging toward said opening, the said feeding-chain extending through said box and opening, substantially as set forth.

3. In afurnace-stoking apparatus, the combination with the hopper having funnels secured beneath and openings through the bottom plate in line with said funnels, sprocket- Wheels arranged in said openings and at or near the opposite ends of said hopper, feeding-chains arranged 011 said sprocket-Wheels and moving above said bottom plate inward from the opposite ends of said hopper to said openings, substantially as set forth.

4. In a f urn ace-stokin g apparatus, the combination with the hopper 19, having funnels f, f, beneath, and openings 0, c, with boxes 0, 0, opening within said hopper above, and sprocket-Wheels g, 9, within said openings, means for operating said sprocket-- wheels, and chains on said sprocket-wheels extending toward the opposite ends of said hopper, and cooperating sprocket-wheels g, substantially as set forth.

5. In a mechanical stoker, the combination with the injectors having hoppers 0, for the coal and pipes for the injecting fluid, of a hopper 1), arranged above said hoppers 0, and having depending funnels above said hoppers 0, and boxes within said hopper b, having converging walls forming chambers leading oppositely to said funnels and feedingchains arranged in said chambers and adapted to force the fuel from the interior of said hopper-b, between said converging walls, substantially as set forth.

6. In a mechanical stoker a hopper or coalreceptacle having at the bottom converging Walls leading to an exit-opening, and a feeding-chain adapted to force the fuel between said walls, substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this 10th day of March, 1898.

DAVID REYNOLDS IVARD.

IVitnesses:

CHARLES H. PELL, (J. B. PI'rNEY. 

